Zaha Hadid
Born in Iraq in 1950, Zaha Hadid was the first woman to win the Pritzker prize, the field’s highest honor. But for years, she had to fight to prove that her designs could even be built. She was a pioneer in Deconstructivism: Designing buildings that looked unstable, jagged, or frozen in mid-explosion. She gained a reputation for her gorgeous, fantastical designs—painted by hand. But her ideas looked impossible to build, so they remained on paper.
Then, in 1983, she won a big competition to design a club in the hills of Hong Kong. Hadid proposed carving chunks out of the mountainside, which she called a “man-made geology.” The project was eventually canceled, but the world of architecture then knew her name.
Still, it took another decade before one of her concepts actually got built: A fire station in Germany with no right angles; looking like it could take flight. It was a great success—quickly becoming a prime example of Deconstructivist architecture.
Around the same time, she won an international competition to design an opera house in Wales, but it was overruled by local politicians, and the funding was pulled. Later, Hadid said it was resistance and prejudice that killed the project.
But she kept winning competitions, building momentum—and finally, buildings! By the early 2000s, she was an architecture superstar. She still drew by hand, but adopted new computer technology to model her designs. The software made even wilder shapes possible—including the curves that became her signature. A Hadid design was no longer crazy or impossible—it was simply a Hadid.
Sadly, she died of a heart attack in 2016. By then she had built hundreds of buildings, with many more in progress. And she had proved she could build nearly anything she could imagine.
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6 . The Upside to Being Outside
Research shows that being in nature makes people feel good, whether they’re roughing it in the wilderness for days or just hanging out at a local park for a while. One study was conducted in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. Researchers found that most participants’ mood and well-being improved significantly when they spent time in urban parks, even though the average visit was only around half an hour.
How does nature boost people’s happiness? Scientists say that spending time in natural settings reduces stress and anxiety, which benefits mental and physical health. Research shows our brains are more relaxed in natural settings. So, kicking back in a park is a bit like treating your mind to a restful mini vacation.
To most people, it’s not news that nature can be calming. But multiple studies have found that spending time in nature also has some more surprising benefits, like improving creativity and problem-solving.
What accounts for the connection with cognition and creativity? It could be that a good dose of nature acts as a cure to information overload. Everyday life involves a lot of multitasking. Some scientists theorize that spending time in nature enables our brains to rest and recover from mental tiredness.
Naturally, scientific studies don’t cover everything that’s great about the great outdoors.
| A．One study revealed that people were better at figuring out puzzles after a four-day camping trip. |
| B．According to many scientific studies, there’s a good chance it’ll make you happier, healthier, and more creative. |
| C．What’s more, the lift people get from nature is long lasting. |
| D．Lots of people enjoy fun activities outside, like swimming, riding bikes, or climbing trees. |
| E．When the only light you’ve seen all day is the glow of a screen, it might be a good idea to switch it off. |
| F．This means that whether you’re studying or playing video games, heading outside to give your brain a break might help you get to the next level. |
7 . Whether it’s a jungle hut or a high-rise apartment, your home is covered in bacteria. Now, new research from the Amazon suggests city residents might want to open a window.
Scientists traveled from remote villages in Peru to a large Brazilian city to begin tracking the effects of urbanization on the diversity of bacteria in people’s homes. It’s a small first step —understanding how different environmental bugs help shape what is called our microbiome, the trillions of bacteria that share our bodies and play a critical role in our health.
“Very little is known about the microbes of the built environment,” said microbiologist Dominguez-Bello, who led the pilot study. Her team found that as people living in the Amazon rainforest become more urbanized, the kinds of bacteria in their homes change from the bugs mostly found in nature to those that typically live on people.
In fact, in city residence, the researchers could tell just by the microbial（ 微生物的） fingerprints of the walls that “this is a kitchen or this is a bathroom or this is a living room. That’s amazing,” Dominguez-Bello said. As she puts it, “the walls talk.”
Despite fewer occupants, the more urbanized a residence, the more human bacteria lived on its walls and floors, the researchers reported. In Manaus, the contemporary Brazilian city, a collection of microbes normally found in the mouth and in the gut (肠) were the most important in telling rooms apart. The more crowded jungle and rural homes nonetheless were filled with more bacteria commonly found in soil and water than with human microbes.
Walls were acting as traps as people drop bacteria, compared with the less urban homes open to air circulation, the team reported. Dominguez-Bello was so struck by the findings that she insisted the windows in her New York office be unsealed so she could open them.
She next will compare the microbiomes of the residents with their homes. There’s a balancing act, she acknowledged: Microbiome theories aside, these rural populations are exposed to their own set of infectious threats, including no screens to keep out disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Still, the findings reflect research in U.S. homes and hospitals about the role of air circulation, said microbiologist Jack Gilbert of Chicago, who wasn’t involved in the study. His own housing study was able to match which family lived in different locations by the bacteria they get rid of inside. “Our modern homes are set up perfectly for studying microbes,” he said.
1. What did Dominguez-Bello mean by “That’s amazing. The walls talk.”?| A．Bacteria live in the residence and play a critical role in our health. |
| B．Rooms could be identified based on the human bacteria on the walls. |
| C．Families could be matched with their houses with the bacteria living on them. |
| D．Various species of bacteria are most common on the walls of bathrooms. |
| A．Dominguez-Bello’s study may influence the way homes are designed and built |
| B．urbanization may be delayed due to the newly-discovered microbial communities |
| C．microbes from urban house may be introduced into the Amazon rainforest |
| D．a fund will be created for the rural homes in Peru and Brazil to be rebuilt |
| A．Regular inspection of the air circulation system is the most important task within a hospital. |
| B．Urban homes have more human bacteria on the walls and floors than those in rural settings. |
| C．The balance of good and harmful bacteria depends on things like environmental exposure. |
| D．Jungle huts were found to contain bacteria typically found in water and soil. |
| A．Village Homes Becoming More Popular |
| B．New York Windows Opened at Last |
| C．Walls of a Home May Affect Your Health |
| D．The Microscopic Residents in Your Home |
8 . Of Special Interest to Freshman
| Freshman Seminars are small classes just for freshmen, with some of York’s most distinguished faculty members. Some seminars provide an introduction to a particular field of study; others take an interdisciplinary (跨学科的) approach to a variety of topics. All seminars provided a friendly environment for developing relationships with faculty members and peers. | STARS (Science, Technology, and Research Scholars) provides undergraduates of every year with an opportunity to combine research, course-based study, and development of mentorship skills. The program offers research opportunities and support to students historically underrepresented in the fields of natural science and quantitative reasoning, such as racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the physically challenged. More than 100 students each year participate in STARS, during the academic year or over the summer months. |
| Directed Studies is a selective freshman interdisciplinary program focusing on Western civilization that includes three yearlong courses —literature, philosophy, and historical and political thought — in which students read the foundational works of the Western tradition. | Perspectives on Science and Engineering is a lecture and discussion course for about 75 selected freshmen who have exceptionally strong backgrounds in science or mathematics. The yearlong course explores a broad range of topics, exposes students to questions at the frontiers of science, and connects the first-year students to York’s Scientific community. |
| Academic Advising is a collective effort by the residential colleges, academic departments and various offices connected to York University Dean’s office. Students’ primary academic advisors are their residential college deans, to whom they may always turn for academic and personal advice. The deans live in residential colleges and supervise the advising networks in the college. Students also have a freshman advisor who is a York faculty member or administrator affiliated with their advisees’ residential college. Each academic department has a director of undergraduate studies (DUS) who can discuss with students the department’s course offerings and requirements for majors. | Science and Engineering Undergraduate Research York is one of the world’s foremost research universities. Independent engineering research and design projects and scientific research are an essential part of undergraduate science education at York. Science students can begin conducting original research as early as the freshman year. Ninety-five percent of undergraduate science majors engaged in research with faculty mentors. |
| A．Freshman Seminars | B．Directed Studies |
| C．STARS | D．Perspectives on Science and Engineering |
| A．Academic Advising. | B．Directed Studies. | C．STARS. | D．Freshman Seminars. |
| A．The one who has already got a novel published. |
| B．A medalist of the International Mathematical Olympiad. |
| C．The one who has designed an original engineering project. |
| D．An applicant for York’s Scientific Community. |
| A．Deans of most academic departments live with students there. |
| B．Directors of undergraduate studies of most majors work together there. |
| C．The college deans serve as the principal figures in an advising network. |
| D．The college deans engage in scientific research with selected freshmen. |
9 . A Day in My Wheel Chair
Alex Johnson was born with a rare disorder and got his first wheelchair when he was 7 years old. When he was 11, he arranged to get a bunch of borrowed wheelchairs and then invited his teachers and fellow students to spend a day in them.
Dozens of volunteers quickly learned how complicated it was for Alex to get around the school. Balancing a lunch tray while also rolling down the cafeteria line? Super tricky. Those who participated also learned about the aches and pains Alex struggles with daily. There’s also the arduous, if not impossible, task of rolling a manual wheelchair up and down slopes.
Doors are the worst, they said, because they’re heavy and difficult to pull open from a rolling chair. And although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifies that doorways need to be wide enough to allow a wheelchair and the person’s hands to pass through safely, but many doors in older buildings are just too narrow.
But making the world more accessible for wheelchair users is a public policy issue controlled by government officials, so Alex recently challenged the Tennessee House of Representatives to spend a day in wheelchairs. And 10 men and women took him up on it! For a full day, they worked at their desks and attended all their regular meetings in wheelchairs. The lawmakers had the same eye-opening experiences that Alex’s school pals had.
State Representative Clark Boyd said, “I expected it to be difficult, but I had no idea how frustrating it could be to just simply get around.”
Thanks to comparable wheelchair challenges around the world, more lawmakers are getting the opportunity to learn more about what it’s like for the millions of people living with a mobility disability. “My hope is that through my challenge we can make the world more accessible,” Alex said. “Together, we can change the world, one challenge at a time.”
1. In what way were the students’ experiences of spending a day in wheelchairs and the lawmakers’ experiences similar?| A．Gaining a better understanding of what life is like for disabled people. |
| B．Learning that making the world more accessible is government officials’ work. |
| C．Learning how tiring it is to roll a wheelchair to move around the school building. |
| D．Understanding what it’s like for Alex to balance a lunch tray while in a wheelchair. |
| A．compulsory | B．fruitless | C．ridiculous | D．challenging |
| A．To criticize the ADA for the narrow doors in buildings. |
| B．To show that Clark felt sympathy for wheelchair users. |
| C．To demonstrate that he had decided to change the public policy issues. |
| D．To convince the reader that lawmakers can make the world more accessible. |
10 . Many people learn at an early age to associate the color red with danger. So might it make sense to print medication
“People are not
The researchers found that when the screen was red, subjects performed better on detail-oriented tasks. In one test,
In other tests, creative abilities seemed to be
Researchers concluded from the tests that seeing red causes people to take the extra time to think
| A．instructions | B．symptoms | C．warnings | D．treatments |
| A．create | B．relax | C．decorate | D．design |
| A．skies | B．medication | C．colors | D．paint |
| A．danger | B．detail | C．emotions | D．vigor |
| A．distracted by | B．aware of | C．content with | D．curious about |
| A．cognitive | B．intelligence | C．mental | D．memory |
| A．on one hand | B．at the same time | C．for example | D．that is |
| A．grey | B．blue | C．green | D．white |
| A．proven | B．acquired | C．recognized | D．enhanced |
| A．more abstract | B．more positive | C．more innovative | D．more valuable |
| A．practical | B．academic | C．economical | D．profitable |
| A．critically | B．logically | C．carefully | D．independently |
| A．painting | B．memorizing | C．designing | D．brainstorming |
| A．Unless | B．When | C．Since | D．Though |
| A．turn up | B．stir up | C．set off | D．give off |
